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After off-color Dylan story, teacher could lose his job

By John Collins, jcollins@lowellsun.com

Updated:
10/07/2013 06:36:52 AM EDT

After a complaint last April about an off-color story read aloud in class, Dracut High English teacher Robert Moulton was told to submit his lesson plans in advance.
SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / JOHN COLLINS

DRACUT -- Robert Moulton's passion for Bob Dylan may wind up costing him his teaching job.

The 17-year Dracut High School English teacher was suspended with pay by Superintendent of Schools Steven Stone on Wednesday, as Stone ponders a recommendation by DHS principal Richard Manley that Moulton be fired from his $75,000-a-year position for "conduct unbecoming a teacher, and insubordination."

Stone refused to comment on Moulton's suspension, terming it a "personnel matter."

On Wednesday, Moulton met with the Sun of Lowell near his home in Milford, N.H., to tell his side of the story.

He said he was suspended for refusing to obey Manley's order to submit a week in advance a detailed, five-day lesson plan on what Moulton intended to teach to his 147 junior- and senior-class students.

Moulton said Manley imposed the requirement on him at the end of the 2012-13 school year. He said it came in response to a complaint filed in April by a special-education paraprofessional who said Moulton had read aloud to students from his short story, "Song To Bob (Dylan)," which contains profanity.

"I'm a teacher, but I'm also a writer, and I wrote a short story which is cutting-edge. There is vulgarity. There is profanity," said Moulton of "Song To Bob."

Moulton said he previously read the short story to seniors who are Advanced Placement students. However, in April, on the day Bob Dylan was playing in Lowell, he said students in a different class requested that he read it to them also.

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"At first, I told them, 'Guys, it's not appropriate for school,' but they kept egging me on and even the para asked me to read it to them," Moulton said.

"So I read it in class, and even had students take part in the section of the story that has dialogue," recalled Moulton. "And when it was done, the students cheered. They clapped. They loved it. They were on the edge of their seats. It was an awesome feeling. I was so happy."

Moulton said soon thereafter the complaint was filed with Manley, a former principal of North Middlesex Regional High School.

Moulton said he met with the principal and admitted to reading the story. "As a result, I got suspended for seven days with pay while they looked into it," said Moulton.

Upon his return to work in May, Manley instructed Moulton to begin submitting lesson plans in advance. The teacher said he complied with "rough outlines" until the end of the school year in June.

During the past week, Moulton said Manley approached him again for the lesson plans. "He came into the middle of a class on Tuesday, interrupted a key teaching moment to tell me we were having a meeting," said Moulton, who met with Manley later in the day.

"He asks me, 'Are you going to follow the 'Comprehensive Improvement Plan' I laid out for you?' I said no. He said, 'Then you leave.'"

On Wednesday morning, Moulton said a constable delivered two letters to his Milford, N.H., home, one of them from Manley informing Moulton "of my intent to dismiss you from your employment as a teacher in the Dracut Public Schools, effective Oct. 21... subject to the review and approval of the superintendent" for "insubordination" in "your failure to comply with the Comprehensive Evaluation Plan developed for you on May 1, 2013."

An accompanying letter from Stone stated that Moulton had been "suspended with pay, effective immediately, and until further notice." Stone wrote, "The grounds for this suspension is conduct unbecoming a teacher and insubordination, which constitute good cause."

Moulton said he planned to request a meeting with Stone to plead his case for reinstatement.

As news of Moulton's suspension spread through the school last week, former and current students took to social media to voice outrage.

Moulton's student backers, many of whom tagged their Tweets "#RevoltinForMoulton," expressed admiration for the "passion" he brings to the classroom, and his signature "free writing" sessions in which Moulton encourages students to jot down personal observations in a private journal, "7-all-7," or seven minutes a day, seven days a week.

"Mr. Moulton was always telling us that as a whole, we can make a difference," posted Emily Kelliher, @Emily_Kelleher, on Twitter. "So how about we actually do something this time?"

Tweeted recent Dracut High grad Zoe Malliaros, @zozomal, "He's the best teacher I ever had at DHS. Talk about passion for what he does."

"I don't know the story, but from all of my experiences #RevoltinForMoulton is a great cause," posted last year's senior Class of 2013 vice president Joe Theall on Twitter. "The man is an inspiration."

Moulton, a Methuen native, was hired as an English teacher at Dracut High in the fall of 1997 following his graduation from Rivier College. He served as head of the English Department for three years.

In 2011, Moulton was profiled in a Sun article on "Poetry in the Courtyard," an after-school club he founded in 2008.

In 2006, Moulton was nominated as a "Most Valuable Teacher" in a 400-word essay by one of his students, Caitlin Fisher. The Massachusetts Teachers Association, which sponsored the contest, awarded Moulton and Fisher a pair of Red Sox tickets as prize winners.

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